Innocence
by Nintendian
Summary: They say there is nothing more precious than childhood. — Ruby-centric, Ruby/Weiss.


**Author's Note: **I portrayed Ruby to have somewhat of an angstier personality here, drawing inspiration from the amazing song "Red Like Roses - Part II," which reveals some of her darker thoughts. To be honest, her childish personality in the show kind of...irks me. I don't know, it just doesn't really make much sense that she's gone through so much pain and can still be so naïve and oblivious. (But then again, that's probably just me.)

Anyway, I'll leave this up to interpretation whether Ruby and Weiss's relationship is romantic or just friendship. Enjoy the story!

* * *

><p><strong>innocence<strong>

—

She's four, and she is growing up too quickly.

After all, her mother, Summer Rose, is a Huntress and her father is a teacher at Signal Academy. She doesn't get the luxury of having her mother cradle her in loving arms, reading bedtime stories to her or singing her lullabies until she falls asleep. Instead, Ruby is used to waking up to a silent house when her parents leave early for work, and grows accustomed to eating dinner alone with Yang, who has begun to walk the line of older sister and parent.

Her sister is only two years older than her, but their age gap has grown larger and larger over time because one of them has to be the adult—their busy parents hardly play the role. Besides, Yang is old enough to know that human lives are oh so fragile and delicate and can be broken as easily as letting a glass cup fall to the floor.

But neither of them is prepared when their mother leaves on a mission and never comes back.

When the two receive the letter, Yang bursts into tears and rips it up and scatters the pieces in a rage, but Ruby's too young to understand what it really means. She doesn't yet grasp the concept that death is permanent, an abyss there is no way out of.

"Yang, when is Mommy coming back?"

For once, her older sister doesn't have an answer.

—

She's six, and she finally understands.

And now Ruby knows what grief feels like, the weight of the whole world on your shoulders, suffocating you so that you can't breathe. It's as if she is drowning, sinking deeper and deeper into the bottomless blue depths of the ocean. She kicks and thrashes and cries out for help, desperately reaches up toward the surface, but it's too late, too late.

Her father is still alive, but he is just as shaken as she and her sister are. His world has fallen and is crumbling to pieces around him—for the second time, her sister tells her—and no one can blame him for shattering along with it. He rarely eats or sleeps and shuts himself off from his daughters entirely, and it's like watching their father die alongside their mother.

It's not until Ruby starts going to school that she realizes she is far more mature than any of the other children, because she's seen what the world is really like.

—

She's eight, and she knows the world is not a soft place.

While the rest of the kids her age still play with dolls and toys and trucks, Ruby is learning how to fight with a scythe. She wants to become a Huntress, to fight the Creatures of Grimm, to honor her mother. When she gets older, she desires to become just like her mother one day, brave and heroic, willing to defend the weak and make sacrifices for the greater good. Only the strongest survive, and she wants to be one of them.

Her uncle Qrow agrees to teach her, but he doesn't go easy on her—he pushes her to her limits and forces her to continue training even when she can hardly stand. He even gives her a real scythe, not a cheap practice one. She is clumsy with it at first, nearly slicing herself in half on more than one occasion, dropping the weapon whenever her arms start shaking with fatigue.

But her uncle doesn't gives up on her, and she eventually learns that she shouldn't give up on herself either.

—

She's eleven, but she knows the world doesn't wait for children to grow up.

After nearly three years of harsh but redeeming training, Ruby follows her uncle to the forest beyond her mother's grave, a place she often visits, for her first monster hunt. They encounter a young Beowolf at the entrance of the woods, scrawny but tough. It snarls at her and she automatically flinches, hating herself for acting like a wimp, but Uncle Qrow sets a hand on her shoulder to steady her, and she knows that he believes in her.

With trembling hands, Ruby raises her scythe. She's become stronger and faster over the years, but she's never fought a real monster yet. Her teeth begin chattering and the thought strikes her that she won't have to worry about getting killed, because she'll likely pass out of fear first.

It turns out to be a tough fight, but with the gentle yet firm guidance of her uncle, she manages to defeat the Beowolf with a quick slash to the neck. When it is all over, she stares with shock at the monster's dead body lying on the ground with various limbs scattered, the blood on her hands, the frighteningly dark crimson staining the pure white snow, and bursts into tears.

If this is the world her mother had to go through every day, a life of pain and violence and blood, she doesn't want any part of it.

Her uncle praises her, but Ruby is shuddering and gasping, her breaths coming in quick, shaky heaves. As soon as she gets home, she scrubs her hands with soap and water until they're raw, but the blood is still there, still haunting her.

—

She's twelve, and true warriors don't cry.

Uncle Qrow tells her to be brave, that she's a natural-born warrior, a prodigy even. But it's so very hard to muster up her courage and continue to hunt monsters, and Ruby can't bear to think of the blood anymore. The deep, almost black, crimson envelopes her in her nightmares and washes over her whole body so that she is drowning in its thick, endless depths.

Ruby wants to be a warrior, she really does. She wants to be fearless, to follow in her mother's footsteps so she can keep a piece of her mother's legacy with her wherever she goes. So she pushes herself even harder and teaches herself to love, to even lust for the sight of blood. She goes out on her own at night and sneaks into the woods to hunt Beowolves, laughing when she returns with blood all over her hands.

The sound of her laughs, along with her broken sobs, fill the silent night air.

—

She's fifteen, but no one waits for heroes to arrive late.

She achieves her dream, to go to Beacon Academy with Yang to become a Huntress. There she meets a girl named Weiss Schnee, with ice blue eyes and pretty white hair that reminds her of snow.

Ruby remembers her late-night monster hunts in the forest when it was winter, pure white flakes drifting down from the overcast sky, the pine trees covered in glittering white, a whole world of white. It was an impeccable sight, only tarnished by all the monster blood she spilled. After a while she didn't even feel anything when she saw the lifeless Beowolf bodies lying all over the snow—she learned to cast away her emotions and just kill, soothed by the relentless falling of snow around her.

But that's why she can't stand being around Weiss, because she fears she will break down whenever she sees the color of perfect, unblemished white. It doesn't help that the other girl has such an cavalier attitude. She probably had the perfect childhood that only happens in fairy tales, received everything she ever wanted, never had to worry about anything.

Ruby hates her.

And lucky her, she and Weiss just have to end up on the same team!

One day they are sitting in their team room alone, with Yang and Blake out, and Weiss is being a stupid little know-it-all again and pointing out every single detail Ruby got wrong on her homework. She sounds exasperated, as if all Ruby's errors are so obvious, and her haughty voice makes the brunette want to strangle her.

Before long, Ruby can't stand it anymore. She has tried to put on a cheerful, happy-go-lucky façade for so long, but in a mere instant, her mask shatters. Before she knows it, she is screaming something incoherent and shoving Weiss against the wall, her hands around the other girl's throat. She knows she can kill Little Miss Princess if she wants to, because that's what she's been doing her whole life.

That's when she realizes—

She has hunted so many monsters that she has become one herself.

She's not even a human with emotions and feelings anymore, just a machine programmed to kill without a second thought. This is not what her mother stood for. And Ruby almost laughs when she realizes the irony of it all: the reason she learned to fight in the first place was so that she could fight for what was true, what was right, but now look what she has become. Nothing but a heartless monster.

"Ruby—" Weiss manages to choke out, and there is real, genuine fear in her blue eyes. At the sight, Ruby almost chokes, so she squeezes her eyes shut, cursing herself when she senses the tears coming.

"Shut up!" Her voice breaks, and she tries to control herself. "Can you stop showing off how smart you are, how flawless you are? Just once!"

"L-look, I know—"

Suddenly a dam has been broken, the whole river flooding out with a mighty roar, finally free of its chains. She feels as if a flame was sparked and now her insides are turning to fire, the years of abandonment and pent-up anger and frustration burning through her and bursting out all at once, which Weiss just happens to be the target of.

Ruby stumbles backward and lets go of the white-haired girl, who just stares at her in shock.

"No, you don't know!" she yells. "You don't understand anything! You're spoiled and pretty and perfect and I bet you've never had a care in the world!"

"R-Ruby..." Weiss reaches out to her, but the brunette smacks her hand away, clenching her fists so tight they become white.

"I _hate _you!"

Ruby expects her to scream something back, but the other girl just hesitates, then steps forward to embrace her. It is the last thing she was expecting, so she is frozen to the spot while Weiss's arms wrap around her and pull her close. And then the red-clad girl is sobbing, crying into Weiss's shoulder while the older girl strokes her hair and murmurs soothing words into her ear.

When it all comes down to it, Ruby is broken, shattered, and now she is laying the darkest parts of herself bare. She may look optimistic and naïve on the outside, just a regular teenager, but inside a storm has been churning inside her for years. Now she's revealed how weak she really is, how much of a coward she has always been, ever since the day her mother died.

But Weiss keeps holding her, and if anything, doesn't seem to mind. So with a sigh, Ruby relaxes into the other girl's arms and lets herself sleep.

—

Ruby Rose is still scarred. It's not like everything is going to be all right, because that's only what happens in fairy tales with princesses and knights in shining armor. She has long since learned that the world doesn't work that way. But maybe—

Maybe now she can find the comfort, the love she's been seeking all her life. The broken pieces of her are still lying on the ground, but she and Weiss can pick them up together, and she can be finally mended.

Maybe with Weiss, Ruby can live out the precious childhood that the world so cruelly stole from her.

.

.

_end_


End file.
